Item T-2034 - Angus J. MacDonald, Big Glen, N.S

Biographical Sketch
Genealogy of the Loch Lomond MacDonald'
Farming in the early days
Dominion Coal Company cut lumber at Silver Mine
Describes the operation, log bridge built across the river
The log drive to the sawmill...
Describes the process of hauling logs to the river
Logs provided lumber for company houses
Started school at age of 10
His first teacher, Jessie Morrison
Far from school, boarded with his aunt...
Describes the school, how it was heated, the discipline
Left school after grade 5
Started working at the Steel Plant, 1926
During Depression, little work - plant worked 2 days a week
Women were hired during the War (WW II)
Work on the farm - what the women did - the day's routine

Food - fish, how it was preserved
Making farm implement
Hay making in the early days
Dairy proucts - keeping milk cold
The arrival of cream separators, their care
His father was postmaster, 1912
Carried mail to Salmon River, $1 a trip
Discusses operation of the post office & mail route
First post office at Loch Lomond
News papers - Sydney (N.S.) Weekly Post, Family Herald
Wages at the Steel Plants after the War
Describes work at the Plant
United Steel Workers Union didn't get started until after 1941
The Plant Council...
Life on the farm - kerosene lamps, wood stoves...
Water from the well - never frozen because of its depth
When the mine started, the well went dry
No social activities in his youth
Church history - lay preachers in the earliest times
Present church built in 1910
United Church at Loch Lomond opened 1929
The first ministers...
Dissension and division over the union
Choir made up of older people
Prayer meetings held in school once a week
Gaelic the only language spoken at home; few could repeat it
His thoughts on Gaelic Today
He and all his brothers & sisters, born at home, delivered by a midwife, Peggy Currie
Never felt that his likfe lacked anything
Discusses food on the farm; potatoes & turnip the only vegetables
Implements manufactured in the forge
Four blacksmiths in the area, he gives their names; none today
Names 3 merchants that were in the area at the time
Pioneer craftes, processing wool
Describes his trip to North Uist, his search for information on Malcolm "The Carpnter"
Describes the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, his impression
Describes a Gaelic service he attended
Sunday laws stricty bserved there
Some more genealogy
His mother's weaving - she was self taught
Mary MacLean whom he visited in Scotland
Reads in Gaelic